


An act of kindness

by Crunchpunch



Category: Gotham (TV)
Genre: Christmas, M/M, Winter, brief mention of Gertrud Kapelput
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-23
Updated: 2016-12-23
Packaged: 2018-09-11 12:43:34
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,361
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8980210
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Crunchpunch/pseuds/Crunchpunch
Summary: Oswald leaves his mittens at the GCPD. Jim finds them.





	

**Author's Note:**

> This is a thing I wrote for #GobblepotWinter2016 and I picked the 'Mittens' prompt from the bingo card. Hope it's readable, sorry for any mistakes ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯

Winter had finally come to Gotham City. Chilly winds making its inhabitants hide their faces in their collars. Despite the bitter weather Jim arrived at his workplace in a good mood. However, when he walked towards the office to talk to Harvey, who had been acting captain since Barnes got locked up, he saw to his dismay that Oswald Cobblepot was already in there. Jim stopped in his tracks. He spent a good 30 seconds trying to figure out what brought Gotham's Mayor to the GCPD an early morning like this. Jim had seen him there a couple of times before since the feud between him and Nygma had started. Jim rolled his eyes at the thought. But by the looks of it, this day Cobblepot was particularly upset. He was ferociously waving his arms and the bundle of rage inside of the little man seemed to be on the verge of exploding. Judgig by Harvey's almost too hilarious facial expressions, it was most probably the same matter as the previous times the Mayor had come to discuss.

  
Jim sneakily looked at the ongoing conversation for a few minutes. Just when he thought Harvey was going to grab Penguin by his overcoat and throw him out the window, Oswald angrily draped his scarf over his shoulders and turned on his heel to walk out of the room.

  
Jim quickly sat down at his desk and pretended to look busy, going through some files. He had figured this was the best way to avoid the other man. Besides running to the locker room, of course.

  
Oswald stormed past him with a huffy expression. The man hobbled surprisingly fast down the small set of stairs, but stopped mid-step and turned to look over where Jim was sitting.

  
"You should teach your partner some manners, Jim." He said and tried to get some kind of response. When he realized Jim was ignoring him he snorted. "But then again..." he commented sneeringly and let the rest of the sentence go unsaid.

  
Jim gave him a quick look at that, but Oswald had already started limping out of the station. What did he mean by that? Jim's a polite guy- right?

  
He got up from his place and went in to the Captain's office. There he found Harvey, sunken into his chair. The older man looked up at him with tired eyes.

"Enjoy being captain?" teased Jim.

  
"Don't even talk about it, Jim." said his partner. "How many times are we going to have to act relationship counselors for these two scumbags?" Harvey grumbled.

  
Jim gave him a sympathetic smile and was about to ask what's on today's schedule when his eyes fixed on something on the desk. There lay a pair of bright red knitted mittens. Harvey followed Jim's gaze and saw them too.

"Shit, Cobblepot must've left them there," Harvey stated in a frustrated manner. He stood up and rounded the desk. "Throw them in the garbage, I cannot stand seeing the slightest hint of that creep right now." he said, patted Jim's shoulder and then walked out the door.

Jim eyed them. _Wow, Penguin really have a sense of style_ , he thought flatly to himself. The mittens were almost painfully red and had two big blue snowflakes embroidered on them. Jim almost never wore mittens, never had, but if he were to buy a pair he would certainly not go for this design. They were straight out ugly. Childish was another description that came to mind. That and the fact that they didn't seem to fit Oswald's usual style, made Jim wonder if they even were his. He grabbed them of the counter and noticed a tiny name tag inside of the seam.

  

_Gertrud Kapelput._

 

The name was written in a squiggly manner.

Damn. He must've inherited them from his mother. Oswald would go mad when he realized he'd lost them. Jim knew how much Oswald's mother had meant to him. He himself had never had a similar relationship with his own mother, so he could never quite understand the bond.

 

"You comin',partner? We got a whole lot to do here." Harvey peaked through the door. He was clearly referring to the massive pile of paper lying on their workspace.

  
"Yeah, sure." Jim said absently and was about to put the mittens back on the table. He hesitated though, and stared at them for a short while before stuffing them into his jacket pocket. "Y'know what, Harvey, I'm just gonna run home and get this thing I forgot. It's important." Jim said and tried to sport his most innocent face.

"If this is an excuse to avoid all this paperwork, I'm gonna-"  
  


"Don't worry, I'll be back before you can say 'holy doughnut'" said Jim jokingly.  
  


"Don't tempt me" Harvey muttered but went back to the files.

 

As soon as Jim was out of the precinct he started looking around for any signs of which way Oswald could have gone. He had probably returned to his manor. It was located not that far out of town, Jim thought. He got into the car and headed his way out of Gotham.

________________

 

When he arrived at the manor he was surprised to see that Oswald's car wasn't parked in the yard. He sighed to himself and patted the soft bump in the breast pocket of his jacket. _It's worth a try_ , he thought, and stepped out of the car.

Before he had the time to hesitate, he knocked firmly on the majestic wooden door. While standing there at the porch of a criminals home, waiting to return said criminals lost winter garment, Jim started to feel a bit stupid. Why had he decided to come here? He didn't know. Was it because of the way Cobblepot had implied Jim was a profoundly arrogant uncivil stuck-up? Maybe. 

He didn't have the chance to contemplate further. The door opened and a big man in a leather jacket stepped forward. Jim recognized him as Gabe. the man seemed to remember Jim too.  
  


"Detective Gordon.", Gabe addressed him.  
  


Jim cleared his throat. "Is the Mayor here?" he asked.  
  


"Nah, he just left for a conference down at the City Hall. Important business." Gabe eyed him in a way that told him he did to all visitors.  
  


Jim did his best to hide his disappointment and settled for a light nod. Gabe closed the door without asking more.

 

Shit. Of course God or whoever despised him so much wouldn't let Jim have it easy. They were going to make him run after Cobblepot like a fool.  
  


He went back to the car and sat there for a while before he turned the key. A thought struck him. He could've just handed the damn mittens to Gabe. He placed a hand on his forehead and cursed to himself. He sure couldn't knock on the door again, that would be too awkward.  
  


"So, City Hall it is." he sighted and turned the wheel and headed back on the road to Gotham.

________________

 

Twenty minutes later he arrived at the City Hall parking lot. Jim was already tired and wanted to go back to the GCPD. He asked himself again why he was doing this. Best for Oswald he's in there. Jim got out of the car and started moving towards the building.  
  


He stepped through the doors and went to the front desk.  
  


"Excuse me, there's supposed to be some kind of conference here..?" Jim fished.

  
The woman behind the desk looked up at him. She had gray mid lenght hair and pale blue eyes. She actually looked a lot like Gertrud and he wondered for a second if Oswald had noticed that too.

  
"Yes, sir, in the room to the left at the end of the hall. But sir-"  
  


"Thanks" Jim said hastily and hurried down the hall.

  
He stopped at the door and sat down on one of the waiting chairs. He peaked through the small window to see if they were finished anytime soon. To his disappointment he saw that the room was empty. It was then he noticed the small sign on the door.   
  


_CONFERENCE CANCELLED_

 

Jim had to stop himself from kicking the chair over.

  
"Are you kidding me!" he exclaimed. He felt like tossing the damned pieces of ugly clothing on the floor and stomp on them. _How the hell can that waddling little man move so fast?_

 He tried to pull himself together and decided to try with the receptionist again.

 

"Excuse me, again. Do you by any chance know where the Mayor was going after the conference?" Jim asked.  
  


"Uhm, yes I might've heard them talking about going for lunch. May I ask-" she started but Jim cut her off.  
  
  
"Did you catch where they were going?"  
  


"Sir, I'm working, I have other things to do rather than snoop into the private affairs of others." She said it with a polite smile. Her overly defensive demeanor told Jim otherwise though, but he let it be.  
  
He left for the exit and went out to his car again. _What now then_. He looked around on his snowy surroundings, cold biting his cheeks. There had to be at least a billion restaurants in this city, Jim thought gloomily.  
  
But then, like a gift from above, he caught sight of Penguin's car. It could only be his. Jim had seen it before so he was fairly certain. Besides, few in Gotham had the money to be driven around in a effing limousine. It stood parked at a luxury restaurant just across the street from where Jim was standing.

He had two alternatives. He could interpose in the middle of their little lunch get-together and toss him the mittens without further ado. The other option was to wait until they finished. He glanced at his clock. It had been almost an hour since he left the station and he had a feeling Harvey was planning murder by now.

 

"To hell with it", Jim murmured and made his way across the icy street.

________________

 

Jim pushed open the doors to the restaurant. He stayed in the entrance hall to see if he could spot Cobblepot. He saw a group of particularly well-dressed men at a large table in the right corner. Among them sat a peculiar young man with dark spiky hair and notable green, calculating eyes. Although Jim thought he looked a bit distracted, worried even. From where he stood he could see that Oswald wasn't paying attention to the others.  
  
Jim leaned carefully against the wall and did his best not to attract attention from the staff and the other guests. He tried to make eye contact with Oswald but he seemed to notice everything _except_ Jim. Expectantly, he followed Cobblepots gaze to the bar, the couple sitting at the table next to them, the pianist at the small scene in the back of the room. Jim grew impatient and considered just handing the mittens to the bartender. With a final effort, he reached his arms up in the air and managed a strained waving. Oswald's gaze was stuck on one of the gigantic chandeliers hanging from the ceiling. His eyes slowly wandered to the side, until he detected a ridiculous-looking policeman standing at the doors. Oswald woke from his thoughts instantly, jaw nearly dropping to the floor.  
  


"E-excuse me, gentlemen.", he stammered and stood up from the table. Though, none of them seemed to notice him.

  
A sigh of relief escaped Jim as he saw the other man excuse himself from the table and started to walk in Jim's direction. Jim nodded towards the exit and walked out.

____________

 

After a few minutes Oswald joined him out in the cold. Snow had started falling from the cloudy sky.

"My apologies,  I had to pick up my coat from the wardrobe," Oswald started and adjusted his scarf. "May I ask what Jim Gordon is doing here interrupting my lunch meeting?" he continued with a gruff emphasis, still grumpy about Jim ignoring him this morning.

Jim turned around to face Oswald."May I ask why the Mayor considers himself so busy that he can not even keep track of his own belongings?" countered Jim defensively.  
  
  
Oswald stared at Jim for a few moments, trying to make sense of the whole sentence. "Wha..-" Oswald stepped forward, obviously confused.  
  
  
Jim reached into his breast pocket and shoved the mittens into the other mans face. "Here."  
  
  
Oswald looked completely baffled. He stared at the fabric. "My mittens" he gasped, taken aback. "I thought I'd lost them somewhere." He looked up at Jim.  
  
  
"You left them at the GCPD. Drove to your house to give them to you but that henchman of yours said you were attending some conference so.." said Jim brusquely and prepared to leave.  
  
  
"So...you chased me round the city just to give them back..?" Oswald asked, a quizzical look spreading over his face.  
  
  
Jim halted, a rosy tint settling on his cheeks and he felt burning sensation on his neck. He didn't know what to answer, hadn't really thought this through to begin with. When Oswald said it like that he heard how bad it sounded.  
  
"W-well, they have a tag with your mother's name on it so I figured you'd want them back? I guess?" Jim tried, making an effort to sound like he absolutely under no circumstances cared about the other man. But clearly Oswald absorbed this random act of kindness like blotting paper. Jim found himself reacting quite not like he used to to Oswalds fond smile. They stood there silently for a while,snowflakes starting to coat their hair and shoulders. Jim said something about hurrying back to the precinct. They parted ways but before Oswald could go in to his lunch mates, Jim turned around.  
  


"Hey, Cobblepot. Next time you plan on calling me impolite, you should think back on this," called Jim with a serious tone. But Oswald noticed the playful twinkle in the detectives eyes. He glanced at the red mittens in his hands and let out a bright chuckle before he went inside, leaving the cold behind.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Happy holidays!


End file.
